House of Estrogen

Halloween, 2011

Halloween seemed a little different this year... not necessarily bad different, just different. We definitely had fun. We rode a haunted train. We went to a pumpkin patch, but we never carved the pumpkins. Our porch sported plain jane jack-o-lanternless pumpkins this year.

Usually, it seems we have two or three occassions to wear costumes over the course of October at Halloween parties or festivals, but this year, the costumes weren't donned until Halloween night. To say Addie was thrilled with her Foofa costume doesn't even begin to describe her state of mind. Discovering a costume for her doll took her excitement to an almost manic level.

You say you don't know who Foofa is? Really? Because Addie is quite certain you do. Over the past month, she has told countless waiters, neighbors, teachers, and friends that she was going to be Foofa for Halloween. They would say, "uh... you're going to be what?" Then with complete exasperation, she would say, "Foofa!" as if that is as obvious as something like "lady bug" or "ballerina". The adult would then turn to us with that tortured look of, "What language is your child speaking? I have no idea what she just said."  So, for you Foofa-ignorant souls, I'll help you out. Foofa is the pink monster on a quirkly little kids TV show called Yo Gabba Gabba that has a bit of a cult-like following. Here she is.

Addie makes a rather cute little Foofa, eh? My mom made the majority of the costume. I ordered the hat from Etsy seller HLP Studio. I think this may be my favorite House of Estrogen Halloween costume ever!

We dined on mummy sausages, monster fingers, and monster mouths.

Then it was time to set out trick or treating. We had a bit of a motley crew... Athena (Goddess of wisdom), a devil (who forgot to wear her horns), and little Foofa. I always admire families who plan a theme for Halloween - with every child being a character from Harry Potter, Wizard of Oz, or Alice in Wonderland. It always looks so fun and coordinated. We're just not that family. We went with more of a devil, goddess, flower monster sort of theme.

Then, we set out in the rain... the cold, miserable, dreary rain. We've had cold Halloweens in the past with jackets covering up costumes. We've had hot Halloweens in the past with costumes changed out at the last minute because they were too hot to wear. I can't ever remember having a rainy Halloween though. I don't recommend it. It was wet. And cold.

It sure didn't keep anybody from the candy though.

So, we tromped around through the puddles knocking on doors. Nina judged each house on how many pieces of candy they let her take. Addie judged each house on whether or not they had a dog. If there was a dog, she would scream, turn and run back to us, leaving Nina to get a candy for her. If there was no dog, she would come away happy saying, "That house doesn't have a dog." If she lucked into two in a row, you'd hear, "That house didn't have a dog eeder!!"  All the houses were the same to me except for the one serving cornbread and brunswick stew to the parents - love that one! It was some spicy stew, but it sure warmed me up on the cold, wet night. When we returned home, the sorting, trading, and eating commenced. (How do you like Addie's hot pink hair feather?  Nothing says, "I have two older sisters" like being three years old and having a hair feather.)

Nina and Addie snarfed up a bunch of candy, saved a few for lunch boxes this week, and then set out the rest for the Halloween Witch. She will come tonight, take all the extra candy, deliver it to an organization who sends it to the troops overseas, and then leave each girl a couple of new books. Nina wanted to make absolutely certain that the Halloween Witch knew which candy to take and which candy was off limits.

About an hour later, Elise arrived home with the motherload. Then the real sorting began.

Elise ate a bunch and then gathered up her pile for the Halloween Witch as well. I think the Halloween Witch may secretly stash away a few Kit Kats and Reeses Pieces, but tomorrow, Halloween will be over. We'll have to start planning our costume theme for next year. Perhaps we'll go with a cowgirl-fairy-vampire sort of theme... something really cohesive like that.

I'm linking up with Sellabit Mum's Boo in the Blogosphere. Click here to check out more fun trick or treat posts.

 

Haunted Train

Spooky fun!

Pokins!

With the exception of Elise's unfortunate encounter with some fire ants, we all had fun at the "pokin patch" (as Addie would say) this weekend.

Halloween: a Look Back, and Trick or Treat

When I was in elementary school, our school held a pumpkin contest every year.  It was a fun tradition which the school still does today. I faithfully entered every year.

Gotta love this picture of me with my eyes closed. Fortunately, digital cameras have pretty much eliminated these sorts of pictures.

 

I was stylin' here with my "I'm a Pepper" t-shirt and docksiders.

 

I guess the whole "person pumpkin" thing was working for me... I won a blue ribbon with this one too.

 

Nice... gauchos, white knee socks, and penny loafers... Was I a child of the 70's or what?

 

Thanks for going with me on my little walk back through nostalgia. Do the girls look like me in any of those pictures?  My poor girlies didn't even carve pumpkins this year, let alone decorate them for a contest. They had a great time Trick-or-Treating though.

 

Elise went trick-or-treating with one of her friends, and I took Nina, Addie, and one of Nina's friends.

 

Some of our neighbors were serving "BBQ sundaes" to trick-or-treating parents - pulled pork, coleslaw, and baked beans in a cup.  You probably have to be an NC native to get the whole slaw thing.  I've been here for 20 years, and I still can't eat slaw on my BBQ. The BBQ sundaes were a big hit though. Some other neighbors put together a big haunted house and a fun house. This is a picture of Nina in the fun house.

  


The girls brought in a motherload of candy, so we decided to try something new this year. We told the girls they could eat candy that night, pick out 10 pieces to eat the rest of the week, and then if they left the rest of their candy out, the Halloween Witch would take it away and leave a couple new books.

 

Addie wasn't sure what to think of the Halloween Witch.

J.C. - "OK, now that you've picked out your candy to save, leave the rest here. The Halloween Witch will take this candy and leave books for you."

Addie - "Halloween Witch take my candy?"

J.C. - "Yes, and she will leave new books for you."

Addie - "Halloween Witch take my shoes?"

J.C. - "No, she won't take your shoes... just the candy."

Addie - "Halloween Witch take my toys?"

J.C. - "No. She won't take your toys. Everything in the house will be here except for this pile of candy. When you wake up in the morning, there will be books here."

Addie - "Halloween witch bring me books?"

J.C. - "Yes"

Addie - "I love Halloween Witch."

The next morning the first words out of her mouth were, "I got new books!" and she proceeded to tell me all about how the Easter Bunny had brought her books.

 

Do you think the Halloween Witch will bring the Easter Eggs this spring?
 

Creepy Crawlies

Last year, I made spider web cookies for a Halloween treat. I loved the way they turned out, so I made more this year for the bake sale at the girls' school. I needed to make something for the cake walk too though, so I decided to try Bakerella's spider cupcakes as well.

Check out this cute little guy.

 

Yes, I know spiders are supposed to have eight legs. but six looks OK, right? This is Halloween afterall - maybe they are mutant spiders. 

 

EEK!  It's the invasion of of the mutant six-licorice-legged spiders.

 

Nina on Trunk or Treating

"I wint trunk or treat no [on] sunday. It wus fantastic. I had fun. I wus skidols [Skittles]. I have a favrorite cande. I bet you are gesesing wut it is? It is budr cup. I love the tast [taste] uv it. Elise is a cande con fare [candy corn fairy] and Addie she wus a lade bug."

Based on that rave review, I would say our trunk or treat outing was a success.

When Did Fun Become So Difficult?

This afternoon, we had plans to go to a Trunk or Treat event. I thought I would score some fun-mommy points with that activity. What kid doesn't love dressing up in a costume, getting candy from the trunks of cars, and playing carnival games? Doesn't that sound like kid-heaven?

 

The drama fun started with, "OK, everybody - go get your costumes on!" The candy corn fairy began whining that her neck was itchy and her wings were too tight. The ladybug yelled, "NO WINGS! I NO WEAR WINGS!" and tore her antenae off her head. (Note to self... never buy costumes with wings.)

 

Next there was the battle of the trick-or-treat buckets. The weird neon green pumpkin bucket was apparently a hot commodity. Much yelling, screaming, and tears ensued over the $%*@# buckets. The Skittles bag even declared that she wouldn't go if she couldn't have her bucket of choice.  Then the screaming sounded remarkably like my voice, "This is SUPPOSED to be a fun activity. If you guys can't get your acts together to have FUN, we are staying home!"

 

Frazzled and irritable, we all piled into the car sans wings and antennae and made it to the trunk or treat. Remarkably, we all had fun. Was it worth it? I'm really not sure. Fun should not be such a struggle. Perhaps we'll just consider this our trial run for Halloween. Maybe Halloween will go more smoothly. I sure hope so. If not, don't be surprised if Halloween is cancelled this year at the House of Estrogen.

 

Finding That Perfect Pumpkin

Finding the perfect pumpkin starts with a trip to the pumpkin patch every year. I hope it is many, many years before my children outgrow the fun of the pumpkin patch.

 

We started off in the corn crib.

 

I'm pretty sure they never would have noticed if I left and came back for them hours later. They couldn't have been happier jumping around in the corn.

 

I'm still finding corn kernels all over the house.

When I finally pulled them away from the corn, we headed over to the slide where a little sisterly love was evident.

 

Addie must have gone down that slide 50 times, and thankfully, she had a sister at the top to help her into the slide every time but once. That time, I was at the bottom waiting for her when I heard her distinctive, "MommaDaddy, MommaDaddy, MommaDaddy" wail and realized a long line was forming behind her. She was able to climb up the hay bails but wasn't quite tall enough to climb in. A nice momma in line helped her, but that was the last of the slide for us.

 

From there, we tried out the hay ride.

 

 

Last, we went in search of the perfect pumpkin,

 

posed for a picture,

 
 
and learned the hard lesson of the day... hay doesn't taste so good.

 

 

 

 

How They've Grown... Halloween Edition 2010

2005

 

2007

 

2008

 

2009

 

2010

 
 

 

Fall Fun in Big D

Elise, Addie, and I headed down to Dallas this past weekend for a little fall fun with my parents. Why just two kids, you ask? Well, have you ever tried traveling alone with three? Yes? Then you understand. No? Then try it and let me know how it goes. Air travel with a toddler is not my idea of fun regardless, so adding in two constantly-bickering older sisters sounded like more than I was willing to tackle. In a lucky twist of fate, it turned out my choice of Elise and Addie was for the best in more ways than one. Nina ended up with a horrific case of strep throat all weekend. I felt horrible for her, but I was also glad she wasn't part of the traveling half of the family.

It was a nice trip. We did a little swimming...

where the girls decided to push poor JoJo in the freezing water.

We went shopping and had lunch at the American Girl Store and Bistro.... Elise's definition of a dream vacation.

We hung out with Bubba. My poor ol' Dad can't really travel any more, so the girls don't get a lot of opportunities to spend time with him. I wish they could have gotten to know him more before his hearing and vision deteriorated so much. We just have to take advantage of the time that we do have with him.

 
 
Of course, we went out for Mexican food... for my beloved nachos.

My personal favorite part of the trip was the visit to the Great Pumpkin Festival at the Dallas Arboretum. I've never seen anything like it! The pumpkin houses were spectacular!

 

It was k.i.l.l.i.n.g. me not having my good camera with me. I was surrounded by dSLR's with killer lenses for all the awesome photo ops while I snapped away with my sad little point and shoot. I had serious camera envy. Then again, it was so crowded that it was hard to get pictures without a background full of people anyway, so maybe it was just as well. It was clearly a popular photography spot. We saw two brides and three girls in their quinceanera dresses doing photo shoots along with loads of kids either in Halloween attire or (of course) their UT or OU outfits.

One of the girls being photographed for quinceanera was wearing a dress very similar to this one, and she had a doll wearing a matching dress. I thought Elise's jaw might fall right off her face. You would have thought that Cinderella herself stepped right out of one of those pumpkins. I'm just envisioning six years from now Elise trying to convince us she needs a quinceanera dress even though we don't have so much as a drop of hispanic blood in us.

In true Texas style, one of the brides was wearing white cowboy boots - love it! I may not live in Texas any more, but I'm still a Texan at heart. You know what they say... "You can take the girl out of Texas..."

 

 

We really had a fun trip. If you'll be anywhere near Dallas this fall, I highly recommend a visit to the Arboretum.

Nina seems to have recovered from her strep. She and J.C. made the best out of the remainder of the weekend once she was feeling a little better, and she knows she is on the roster for the next trip to Dallas.